Opinion Offering: I’ve Got Questions, not Answers

Today’s opinion offering was less opinion and more observation, the subject being spring football. MSU resumes spring drills today at 4:30 p.m. (open to the public), and so resumes what I termed a “funny little animal.”

Spring is a time when we – reporters and fans alike – try to find answers to pressing questions. Of course, those answers rarely surface, because it’s only the spring. August is when the answers normally start revealing themselves.

Nevertheless, the questions hang there like ripe peaches begging to be plucked. We can’t help it. We have to ask. So as MSU embarks upon its final 11 practices of the spring, I have for you five little questions that have been coursing through my mind. Just questions; not answers, too. We’ll try to complete the equation come August.

1. Is the QB job truly Chris Relf‘s? Or can Tyler Russell overtake him? And how big a factor in this battle are their differing styles?

2. How much better are the linebacking corps’ prospects now that Brandon Maye is transferring in (he won’t be here until June)? And should it be at all bothersome that a big reason he left Clemson was because he wasn’t content with his role and playing time last season?

3. Will the MSU pass rush be effective with Pernell McPhee gone? The interior defensive line is good, but the ends are largely unproven.

4. Will junior WR Chad Bumphis have a breakout year? It doesn’t seem he’s been quite the playmaker we expected him to be.

5. Can State build off the 9-4 season, or will it regress? The SEC isn’t getting any easier this year, and forecasting a 10-win season is hard for an objective observer to do.